The weather forecast for the Easter weekend looked good. Wind from the east with reasonable temperatures every day. Normally this guarantees nice numbers and rarities. Monday and Tuesday before the Easter weekend there had already been significant migration so the expectations for high numbers of birds were somewhat tempered.
Alwin Borhem suggested to do a Big Day this coming weekend. The weather forecast was good so why not.
2021 started under the spell of the Corona virus and we were in a lockdown followed by a curfew that started on January 21 and lasted until April 28.
Just like last year, there is again a Melodious Warbler in the Maashorst. We actually had him expected earlier this year but the bad weather will probably be to blame.
On Tuesday morning around 9.30 a report comes in of a real Little Swift flying above the Vroon near Westkapelle. A few days ago there was also a Little Swift near Antwerp that stayed around for 2 days. With this in mind, there was no doubt and the ride to Westkapelle started immediately.
On April 20, a Ross' Gull was discovered in the jetty of Scheveningen that still counts for our April monthly list. If the bird would be reported again the next day, we wanted to try it. The day went a little different than we had expected.
A new year and our intention is to start this off well in terms off birding. There are a number of nice varieties in the Netherlands and on this basis plans were made for the next three days.
2020 has become an extremely bizarre year, mainly dominated by the Corona virus. Nevertheless, there was still plenty of birding to do in the Netherlands. Outside the Netherlands this year birding was almost impossible and our usual trips to faraway places had to be cancelled. So no expansion of the world list. Let's look back at what we did see in our own country.